Our First Camping Trip

I’m so excited to share the pictures from our first camping trip! My family camped all the time when my sister and I were younger, so I’m happy to report Alex and Spencer enjoyed themselves! We can be a camping family now too! We went with our friends Liam, Donna, and Brian to Cascade Lake Recreation Area, which is near Brevard. The weather during the day was beautiful with low humidity. But … the temperature dropped like crazy Friday night … the middle 50’s were definitely not expected or planned for! I ended up covering the boys with towels on top of their sleeping bags. We could not believe how cold it got! Luckily, Tim saved the day with extra blankets, a topper for our sleeping bag, and a space heater. We were much cozier Saturday night!

We didn’t get any good pictures of our awesome tent set-up, but we do want to say thanks to Great-Aunt Cyndi for giving us the tent on our wedding registry! It’s been 7 years and we finally put it to good use!

Spencer, Liam, and Alex pretty much lived on their bikes while we were at our campsite.

We spent Saturday exploring waterfalls in Pisgah National Forest. This is Looking Glass Falls.

Alex and Liam loved walking around in the freezing cold water.

Spencer loved looking at all the rocks.

Alex and Spencer made their own “sliding rock”.

Cheese!

Spencer, Liam, and Alex posing in front of the flagpole. The date carved in the rock was 1963.

Spencer and Alex enjoying their freshly popped popcorn and their new blankets.

These boys were not excited about the light being turned on for a photo op.

Alex and Liam fishing on the boat ramp before heading home on Sunday.

Spencer thought the worms were “cute!”

Talk about two tired boys! A sign of a great weekend!

Back to School Monster Truck Bash 2015

This is our third summer in Charlotte and we finally made it to the annual Back to School Monster Truck Bash at the Charlotte Motor Speedway’s dirt track. We had so much fun and will definitely be going again next year! There were 8 monster trucks. They started with the qualifier, then they raced, and they ended with the free style run. The boys were enthralled and had a blast! Tim and I enjoyed the show, too! We ended up with great seats and high schoolers in front of us that showed up late and left often for snacks, so they boys were easily able to see everything. We even managed to miss most of the dust clouds!

The first qualifier of the night.

Saying cheese!

Spencer was amazed by everything - the trucks, the crowds, the birds, the airplanes, the lights …

Ready for a race!

Alex loved watching the two monster trucks crossing paths this way.

We even got to see three trucks roll over.

Crazy boys, waiting for the crowd to thin out.

The Cutest Bug

We took Grandma and Papa to the Charlotte Nature Museum the other day when they came for a quick visit. I wish I had taken picture of the butterflies - they were super active this time! At least we did get a few cute “bug” pictures! Thanks for the visit and the pizza! We had fun!

And thanks for our new super hero capes!! (Not a bug picture, but we had to say thanks!)

Lazy 5 Ranch … Again

Last Tuesday, we met Ethan and Miss Shelley at Lazy 5 Ranch for a wagon ride through the animal park. We last went to Lazy 5 Ranch in October. We fed the animals from my car … and made a mess … so I’ve been wanting to go back and try the wagon ride. I think it was actually more fun in our car. At least that way we weren’t rushed and could take our time feeding the animals. We can always visit the car wash! This visit was hot, but we had tons of fun!

The water buffalo had learned to hold their mouths open for food.

Spencer dropped a piece at a time … probably frustrating to the water buffalo!

Alex pretending the be scared by the buffalo following our wagon.

It was so neat to be so close to the giraffes!

My sweet boys had a blast on the wagon ride.

Alex, Ethan, and Spencer swinging in the shade after the wagon ride.

Feeding the sheep with our left over food. Spencer thought it was the best thing ever.

Spencer’s pirate smile on top of the pirate ship playground. Argh!

The Children’s Museum of the Upstate

I took the boys to Spartanburg for a few days at the end of July to visit my parents, grandparents, and a few museums. While we missed Tim, it was good to get out of the house and do something a little different to break up the summer. We were super busy, but we had a bunch of fun!

Alex, Spencer, and Grandma posing with a horse.

Alex and Spencer working hard to lift the toolbox with the crane.

Alex building a “big, big wall”.

Peek-a-boo!

Playing in the wind tunnel.

Stuck in a bamboo forest.

Alex’s “selfie” of his blue tongue.

Playing in the pool on the back deck.

We Love Swimming!

We’ve had a bit of drama with our swimming lessons this summer. I signed the boys up for semi-private lessons in the beginning of June, meaning they were in the water at the same time with an instructor. Our first instructor was great … but we only had 4 lessons with her before she was either let go or unexpectedly quit. Between waiting to be assigned a new instructor and our schedule with summer camp, we missed out on 3 or 4 weeks of lessons. So much for my goal of Alex swimming by the end of summer! Thankfully, we have friends with neighborhood pools. Alex seems to have gotten over his fear of water and Spencer is practically a fish already, so our new lessons with our new instructor have gone better than I could have imagined.

Little cutie loves swim lessons!

Floating with teacher #1.

Practicing their kicks on the ramp.

So proud of Alex … happy to kick and no crying with teacher #2!

Alex cheering on Spencer!

Nora, Spencer, Liam, Alex, Rowen, and Ethan getting ready to jump!

Nora, Liam, “other” Liam, Rowen, and Alex from last summer at the same pool.